– Police questioned Sunisa, 42, known as Ae, on October 9th at Huai Yai station after her arrest the day before on a Pattaya Court fraud warrant.
– Din Daeng officers found her in a room in a hotel in Phaya Thai at about 5:00 p.m. on October 8th after hiring a private investigator.
– A Huai Yai shop says it paid 275,000 baht on September 4th for a bracelet sold as 5 baht of gold. A grind test showed steel under a real-gold skin. A Chachoengsao shop says it lost 250,000 baht.
– Shop owners say more than 20 stores in Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan, Chachoengsao, and Chonburi were hit the same way, for about 5.5 million baht.
Huai Yai: Gold-shop owners have been chasing a woman they say toured Bangkok, Pattaya, and the east pawning steel bracelets skinned in real gold, and police now have her in custody on a fraud warrant and are looking into a possible organized fraud ring.
Pol. Col. Warawut Nittayawan, superintendent of Huai Yai Police Station, and investigators questioned Sunisa, 42, from Chanthaburi, on October 9th. She is named on Pattaya Provincial Court warrant 160/2569 for fraud. Din Daeng police arrested her at about 5:00 p.m. on October 8th in room 280 a hotel in Sam Sen Nai in Phaya Thai, and sent her to Huai Yai.
The warrant grew out of a September 4th pawn at a shop in the Huai Yai area. Sunisa brought in a bracelet said to weigh 5 baht, the Thai gold weight of about 76 grams, and left with 275,000 baht. She told police a dark-skinned foreigner she knows as Joe, met in July, paid her 10,000 baht a time to pawn gold bracelets, and that she did not know they were fake. She said she is not the owner and that she used shops in Bangkok, the surrounding provinces, Samut Prakan, Chachoengsao, and Chonburi. Investigators questioned her for more than two hours and said her account kept shifting. A record check showed about 10 earlier cases under drug laws and the Computer Crime Act. Police planned to ask Pattaya Court to remand her on October 10 and are looking for others in the chain.
At Suwanna Thongdee Yaowarat, on the Huai Yai municipal road in Moo 1, owner Chalada Maihlueang, 39, showed reporters the bracelet and the shop’s CCTV. To the eye it looks like gold. A file or a grinder cuts through to an ordinary steel chain. She said the maker used real gold for the skin and matched the weight of a genuine 5-baht piece, work she believes took a professional goldsmith. On the day, her son was alone. CCTV shows the suspect arrive in a van, ask to pawn a bracelet, and hold out her left wrist to have it taken off. She also said she might buy more gold. Because the coating was real, a loupe or a grinder was needed to catch it, and the son paid 275,000 baht. When Chalada returned and cut into the piece, she filed the complaint.
After that, a Line group of gold traders compared notes. Owners in Bangkok, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan, Chachoengsao, and Chonburi say more than 20 shops took the same bracelet, always in her real name, for a total of about 5.5 million baht. Chalada said she could not sleep for fear the woman would keep going. Huai Yai already had a warrant, so the shops hired a private investigator, who traced Sunisa to the hotel and tipped Din Daeng police.
Wannaporn Phuchong, 37, owner of Bangkok 5 Gold in Na Mueang, Mueang Chachoengsao, came to Huai Yai with the same story. She said Sunisa pawned a bracelet there on August 26th for 250,000 baht, using the same move of having staff lift it off her wrist. A later test showed it was plated.
Both owners asked other shops to watch for a woman who wants a bracelet taken off her wrist and then pawned, not sold, and who talks about buying more. Selling would usually mean a melt test. Pawning often does not. They also said they do not believe she worked alone, and they want every station that took a complaint to issue its own warrant. Basic fraud under Section 341 of the Criminal Code carries up to three years in prison, a fine of up to 60,000 baht, or both, and each shop can be a separate count. It is a compoundable offence, so a settlement can end a case. With a claimed loss of 5.5 million baht and a string of shops, a single fine would not match the scale the traders are describing.